Afternoon Briefs: US lawyer sentenced in Hong Kong tussle; Air Force at fault in mass shooting abajournal.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from abajournal.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Afternoon Briefs: Judge requires COVID-19 vaccine for some probationers; are Breyer hirings a sign?
Judge requires vaccine as condition of probation
Judge Richard Frye of Franklin County, Ohio, is requiring some criminal defendants to get the COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of probation. None of the defendants raised philosophical, medical or religious objections, Frye told the Ohio Capital Journal and WSYX. Gary Daniels, a lobbyist with the American Civil Liberties Union, said the probation condition is “problematic.” (The Ohio Capital Journal, WSYX)
Breyer hires full complement of law clerks, SCOTUS confirms
The U.S. Supreme Court confirmed Friday that Justice Stephen G. Breyer has hired a full complement of law clerks in what Bloomberg calls “a possible signal that he doesn’t have any immediate plans to retire.” A prior story on the clerk hiring by Original Jurisdiction speculated that there is a 70-30 chance that Breyer will remain on the Supreme Court for at le
Afternoon Briefs: 2 appeals nominees in latest judicial picks; axed dean will remain as law prof
Biden announces new round of judicial picks
President Joe Biden’s fifth round of judicial picks includes nominees to two federal appeals courts. Virginia Solicitor General Toby Heytens is nominated to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Richmond, Virginia. A former clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Heytens worked in the Supreme Court and appellate practice group at O’Melveny & Myers, was an assistant U.S. solicitor general, and was a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law. Jennifer Sung is a labor lawyer and former union organizer nominated to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at San Francisco. Sung is currently a member of the Oregon Employment Relations Board. (White House press release, Law.com)
Afternoon Briefs: Internet research is costly for juror; bar dues claim partly resurrected
Federal juror’s internet research cost over $11K
A federal judge in New Jersey has held a juror in contempt and fined him more than $11,000 for conducting internet research on a case, despite warnings against such conduct. U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler of the District of New Jersey had declared a mistrial after learning that the juror shared his internet findings with other jurors. The juror had researched a patch on the uniform of an immigration officer after fellow jurors suggested that it was a trade union logo. The juror said the patch was a white supremacist logo. The defendant was accused of resisting an immigration arrest. The fine represented the costs associated with empaneling the jury. (Law360, U.S. attorney’s office press release, Reuters)
Afternoon Briefs: Justice Thomas questions federal pot law; Jones Day pay case dropped
Justice Thomas questions government’s ‘half-in, half-out’ pot stance
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said Monday the federal government may no longer have the authority to intrude on the states’ powers to legalize marijuana. Thomas commented in a statement regarding cert denial in a tax case involving a pot business. Thomas said the 2005 case upholding the federal government’s power to ban local marijuana use was based on comprehensive legislation regulating the interstate pot market. The federal government’s current “half-in, half-out” approach that tolerates yet forbids local use of marijuana has undermined the 2005 decision, he said. Thirty-six states allow medical marijuana, and 18 states allow recreational marijuana. (NBC News, Law.com, USA Today, Thomas’ statement)